


Alone

by MeredithBrody



Series: Destiny Era Stories [7]
Category: Star Trek: Destiny, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Series, Ship POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-02-26
Packaged: 2018-01-13 20:16:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1239433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Columbia thinks about her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This started life as a drabble over on Facebook, but I couldn't leave it, and both Ryn and Icka wanted more so I delievered.
> 
> There is a very slight Jon/Erika mention, but it's too small for me to put as a ship.

_**“Please don’t leave me alone.” Johnny Cash ‘Walk The Line’** _

She'd been left alone for so long, the sand scouring her and almost making her unrecognisable to anyone, and more she knew it. She didn't know what had happened to the humans who had inhabited her. They had left long ago, she didn't know how or why, but they had left her to rust alone on this abandoned planet. She didn't know how long she was left alone, but it was a long time, and she was sure there were things she was meant to be doing other than laying here.

Then, not so long ago, more humans had visited her. They weren't her humans, though, they were different. Very different. The Captain was not her Captain. Her Captain had been smaller, and female. This captain was not. She still did not know what had happened to her Captain after she had left _Columbia_ 's safety. She was very afraid for her Captain. For all her humans.

This second wave of humans didn't stay very long. They took some scans, and they tried to look at her, but she heard words like "incompatible" and then "attack". Shortly afterwards they had left and she had been alone again. It had been a lonely existence. She found herself being claimed by the sand again, forgotten to all but a few.

Then, what seemed like only days ago there had been more humans. More people climbing all over her hull and in her systems. This Captain still was not her Captain, but she was closer. She was also calmer, and seemed more interested in _Columbia_ herself than the last Captain had been. She watched what went on within her hull but was powerless to stop the tragedy that happened, and shortly after that she was left alone. Was she being punished for not protecting her crew?

Then they had returned, more than before and they were fixing her, making her spaceworthy again. They had raised her from the planet with the beams she'd seen on Vulcan ships before, but these ships seems familiar, almost as if they were what she could have one day become. They pulled her along with them, through an odd aperture with swirling lights, and then through unfamiliar territory until she knew where she was. She was going home. She could tell. After all these years she was going home. She saw more ships, humans and their friends applauded her as she passed them, and she felt welcomed. Then she saw it. Her older sister was there, looking pristine and beautiful as she always had. At least she was coming home and one of her family was still there.

She was placed beside her sister, just feeling the comfort of being home, being where she belonged. She knew that she likely wasn’t going to leave this place again. After so long alone on that planet, after all she had seen and experienced over the years she’d been away from home. It was still a shock that she had made it back at all. As the days passed the shock wore off, and she found the humans who were fixing her had established a connection to _Enterprise_.

**‘What happened?’** She asked her sister, wanting to know it all. Wanting to know that they had been successful. That there was everything both their captains had spoken about when it was just them and the ship. _Columbia_ had known how much her Captain had loved _Enterprise’_ s Captain, and how hard it had been for her to know she’d never see him again. They had had a dream for Starfleet and for Earth. _Columbia_ now wondered if it had managed to happen. **‘Was it bad?’**

**‘You were missing. Here.’** _Enterprise_ transferred the files to her and she knew everything. What had happened to their younger siblings during the war. All destroyed trying to protect Earth. So many humans had been lost in all those. _Enterprise_ had been thought to be the only one to survive the war. She read all the horrific things the Romulans had done, and all the things her family had been forced to do in return. They had won but it had cost them all dearly.

She fell silent again, thinking over all the years she’d missed, three major wars, an invasion and everything else. There was a lot for her to think about. Over the next few weeks humans and their friends climbed all over her. Repaired everything. They replaced the pictures and clothing in crew quarters. It was as if they had just left the ship for shore leave by the time everything was repaired. She was as good as new but she would have no mission to complete. She just let them fix her, all the while missing the familiarity of the humans who had known her and cared for her before all this happened.

The footsteps on her corridors now were familiar, and she would recognise them anywhere. Her Captain had returned. How was that possible. It had been more than 220 years since _Columbia_ had last seen her Captain, and really she should not have lived this long. _Columbia_ knew humans were not that resilient. But there she was, and she was tracing the usual journey up through the bridge, a hand stopping on the back of her chair for a moment, then she walked into her sanctum, her private place. _Columbia_ could feel the Captain’s movements around her ready room, the pressure of her picking things up and putting them down again. After a few moments she stepped up to the window and patted her bulkhead lovingly as she had all those years before. When it had been the two of them together protecting the other humans who depended on them. The Captain’s warm hand rubbed along the edge of the viewport and _Columbia_ heard the whisper. “It’s just you and me, girl. We’re all that’s left.”

The words were sad, and _Columbia_ understood why. While she had her Captain and her sister. The Captain would have nobody. Maybe the Captain would be safe making new friends, but _Columbia_ hoped that her Captain would still visit. She didn’t want to be all alone again, and while _Enterprise_ was right beside her, it wasn’t the same. She had missed her Captain a lot, and she was glad that she was alive.


End file.
